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Ripple effect of furloughs: Life beyond the Beltway

When the White House-designed, congressionally-engineered sequestration began,
some people envisioned an end-of-the-world scenario. Didn't happen!

Sequestration and its automatic no-exceptions (but with exceptions)
across-the-board (sort of) cuts started with a whimper rather than a bang. But now
that furloughs have begun, people in the real world — feds and people who
depend on the government dollar — are being hit. Meantime, sheltered
Washington-based politicians are immune from any hardships.

Here's what one thoughtful fed has to say:

"There will be real, measurable consequences from furloughs in
the future, and they will be felt the hardest outside the Beltway. And it is not
surprising that no one inside the Beltway seems to care. While those in D.C.
spend lots of time telling each other how good they are doing, those outside D.C.
are living the consequences.

"We are already sarcastic about the (lack of) leadership in D.C.
We don't have far to go to get to the next step — apathy. It is a fact that
the furlough threat has already made its mark. For many of us, the pay loss is
manageable. The impact on our desire to work here isn't. In fact, as I look
around the organization in which I work, and in particular observe the 175 or so
in my department, I see really hard workers — those I have aspired to
emulate despite being their boss — suddenly not caring anymore. Once you
arrive at apathy, turning back is nearly impossible.

"I have lost three employees in the last month due to furloughs
(which haven't even begun yet). Two during exit interviews expressed the lack of
appreciation shown from the furlough threat. The third — the inability to
make it on reduced pay. Combined with award freezes, hiring freezes and the fact
that all three were top-notch individuals (the cream of their college class) with
five years or less experience and in whom we'd invested great effort to develop,
we are quickly, in a nonsurgical fashion, cutting the heart out of our future
organization. Maybe that's the goal (wait, there I go being sarcastic again).

"Finally, and maybe most concerning, is the work we do — at least
where I work — is a 24/7 warfighting support job. We are on-call. When
aircraft crash, we go find out why. When aircraft have trouble, can't fly and are
in a location that is dangerous, we provide them real-time assistance, so they can
get to safety. It's what we do. We love the work. We love those who defend our
freedom. Those living outside D.C. often live in communities where the neighbors
on both sides have loved ones deployed. We are scared that the exact folks they
have exempted from furloughs (and rightfully so — those in the fight) are
going to pay the dearest and ultimate consequence from the furlough follies
— loss of life. For almost everyone that works for me, that is the
biggest concern of all." — Anonymously Apathetic

The Motion Picture Association of America changed the font on its trailer tags,
the green text screen that precedes a movie trailer. The new font is called
"Gotham," which is also notable for being used by the Barack Obama campaign in
2008.

House presses VA for more details
after cyber attacks
House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and ranking member
Michael Michaud (D-Maine) sent Secretary Eric Shinseki a letter asking for an
explanation on why VA didn't tell the committee about multiple nation state
attacks. The lawmakers call for VA to offer credit monitoring services to tens of
millions of veterans.

Report: Assaults increase on rangers, park police
Park rangers, wildlife refuge workers and U.S. Park Police experienced more
assaults and threats from visitors last year than in 2011, according to a group
that represents federal resource workers. A total of 591 incidents were reported
by six land and water agencies in 2012, up 38 percent from the previous year, the
group says. More than one-quarter of the incidents involved some sort of violence
against the employee or officer, the report by the advocacy group Public Employees
for Environmental Responsibility says.